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Porsche merger with VW delayed

A merger of German automakers Porsche and Volkswagen could be delayed and might take a different form than initially planned, the companies said Thursday.

Published: 17 March 2011 13:42 CET
Porsche merger with VW delayed
Porsche head Matthias Müller (l) with VW head Martin Winterkorn. Photo: DPA

But “our common goal is and remains a merger,” stressed Martin Winterkorn, chairman of both VW and the Porsche Holding SE company, during an annual Porsche general assembly in Stuttgart, southern Germany.

The probability that it will happen this year has fallen from 70 percent to 50 percent however owing to legal proceedings initiated by investment funds in the United States and a German investigation, the companies said.

Dieter Pötsch, finance director of Porsche Holding SE, said a probe of two former Porsche executives suspected of stock market manipulation “will be completed at the earliest in early 2012.”

In the United States, investment funds have filed another lawsuit against the maker of 911 sports cars for allegedly causing the funds to suffer several billion dollars in losses as a result of misleading comments on Porsche’s intentions to take over VW.

The current plan is still to merge VW and Porsche, possibly by having VW buy the shares in the manufacturing division Porsche AG that it does not already own via stock options exercised between November 2012 and January 2015.

“We cannot say with certainty which path Porsche SE will take,” Pötsche said in reference to the holding company.

VW, which is Europe’s biggest carmaker and owns brands such as Audi, Lamborghini, Seat and Skoda, wants to make Porsche its 10th brand.

A crucial step towards that goal is a planned Porsche SE capital increase to pay down debt, details of which were unveiled on Thursday.

A €5 billion operation is planned, while the holding company’s debt stands at €6.34 billion.

Still scheduled to take place by the end of May, the capital increase would involve the emission of an equal number of ordinary and preferred shares according to Porsche SE.

It declined to provide more information however before obtaining approval from the German financial market regulator BaFin.

“We are confident this offer will convince our shareholders,” Winterkorn commented.

The Porsche and Piech families, which are the main shareholders in Porsche SE, “will play an important part in this capital increase,” Pötsche said.

Qatar Holding, another key shareholder, was also interesting in buying more shares, he added.

AFP/ka

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CARS

From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla’s giant Berlin car factory

In the green forest outside Berlin, a David and Goliath-style battle is playing out between electric carmaker Tesla and environmental campaigners who want to stop its planned "gigafactory".

Published: 18 April 2021 15:11 CEST
From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla's giant Berlin car factory
Tesla's gigafactory outside the doors of Berlin. dpa-Zentralbild | Patrick Pleul

“When I saw on TV that the Tesla factory was going to be built here, I couldn’t believe it,” said Steffen Schorch, driving his trusty German-made car.

The 60-year-old from Erkner village in the Berlin commuter belt has become one of the faces of the fight against the US auto giant’s first European factory, due to open in the Brandenburg region near Berlin in July.

“Tesla needs far too much water, and the region does not have this water,” said the environmental activist, a local representative of the Nabu ecologist campaign group.

Announced in November 2019, Tesla’s gigafactory project was warmly welcomed as an endorsement of the “Made in Germany” quality mark – but was immediately met with opposition from local residents.

Demonstrations, legal action, open letters – residents have done everything in their power to delay the project, supported by powerful
environmental campaign groups Nabu and Gruene Liga.

Tesla was forced to temporarily suspend forest clearing last year after campaigners won an injunction over threats to the habitats of resident lizards and snakes during their winter slumber.

READ MORE: Is Germany’s Volkswagen becoming ‘the new Tesla’ as it ramps up e-vehicle production?

And now they have focused their attention on water consumption – which could reach up to 3.6 million cubic metres a year, or around 30 percent of the region’s available supply, according to the ZDF public broadcaster.

The extra demand could place a huge burden on a region already affected by water shortages and hit by summer droughts for the past three years.

Local residents and environmentalists are also concerned about the impact on the wetlands, an important source of biodiversity in the region.

Tesla Street

“The water situation is bad, and will get worse,” Heiko Baschin, a spokesman for the neighbourhood association IG Freienbrink, told AFP.

Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel sought to play down the issue, saying in March that “capacity has not been exceeded for now”.

But the authorities admit that “the impact of droughts is significant” and have set up a working group to examine the issue in the long term.

The gigafactory is set to sprawl over 300 hectares – equivalent to approximately 560 football fields – southwest of the German capital.

Tesla is aiming to produce 500,000 electric vehicles a year at the plant, which will also be home to “the largest battery factory in the world”,
according to group boss Elon Musk.

In a little over a year and a half, swathes of coniferous forest have already been cleared to make way for vast concrete rectangles on a red earth base, accessed via the already iconic Tesla Strasse (Tesla Street).

German bureaucracy

The new site still has only provisional construction permits, but Tesla has been authorised by local officials to begin work at its own risk.

Final approval depends on an assessment of the project’s environmental impact – including the issue of water.

In theory, if approval is not granted, Tesla will have to dismantle the entire complex at its own expense.

But “pressure is being exerted (on the regulatory authorities), linked to Tesla’s significant investment”, Gruene Liga’s Michael Greschow told AFP.

In early April, Tesla said it was “irritated” by the slow pace of German bureaucracy, calling for exceptions to the rules for projects that help the environment.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier agreed in April that his government “had not done enough” to reduce bureaucracy, lauding the gigafactory as a “very important project”.

Despite Germany’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often held up by bureaucracy criticised as excessive by the business community.

Among the most embarrassing examples are Berlin’s new airport which opened last October after an eight-year delay and Stuttgart’s new train station, which has been under construction since 2010.

Brandenburg’s economy minister, Joerg Steinbach, raised the possibility in February that the Tesla factory could be delayed beyond its July planned opening for the same reason.

SEE ALSO: Tesla advertises over 300 jobs for new Gigafactory near Berlin

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